The Painkiller is one of a handful of cocktails whose name is trademarked by a rum brand. In practice, this means that if you’re making it with a different brand of rum, you can’t call it by that name. The same is true of the Dark ‘n Stormy (must be made with Gosling’s rum) and – somewhat more defensibly – the Bacardi Cocktail (must be made with Bacardi rum, naturally). A Painkiller is a Painkiller only if it’s made with Pusser’s rum. (This fact caused a bit of a headache for a certain bar in Manhattan last year, following an action which the company defended.)

In fact, the drink predates the trademark by more than a decade, having been invented in 1971 at the Soggy Dollar bar in the British Virgin Islands (and according to Beachbum Berry, it wasn’t made with Pusser’s at the time). Of course, you can make the drink with another brand and change the name (I like “Analgesic”), and it may even be as good as, if not better than, the official version. And of course, in the privacy of your own home, you’re unlikely to be pursued by the intellectual property police.

While we’re talking variations, I recently made one with blood orange juice in place of the regular orange juice, which gave the drink a lovely pink hue. What you will need is a can of cream of coconut; in U.S. bar books, the most commonly cited brand is Coco Lopez, but I have never seen it for sale in Canada. It’s the same stuff you’d use in a Piña Colada, and can usually be found in the drinks section of your grocery store, though it seems to be growing more uncommon these days. The brand I used was called “Coco Colada.”

How to make a Painkiller cocktail

2 ounces Pusser’s Navy Rum
1 ounce cream of coconut
2 ounces pineapple juice
1 ounce orange juice
Fresh grated nutmeg (not optional)

Combine all ingredients except nutmeg in a cocktail shaker and shake well. Pour – don’t strain – into a tall glass, and add more ice to fill. Grate some nutmeg on top.

If you find yourself with some extra bubbly (or some leftover that’s still got some fizz), or you just feel like a change of pace, why not mix up a sparkling wine cocktail, like the classic French 75?

How to make a French 75

1 oz. London dry gin
0.75 oz. simple syrup
0.5 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Champagne or other sparkling wine, preferably traditional method (I used Henry of Pelham “Cuvée Catharine” rosé brut)
Long, thin lemon peel cut with a channel knife (for garnish)

Combine the gin, syrup and lemon juice in a mixing glass with ice, shake for 15 seconds, then strain into a champagne flute. Top with sparkling wine and garnish with the lemon peel.

Happy New Year!

When it comes to cocktails, some fortified wines have more cachet than others. No bar would be complete without sweet and dry vermouth, and many cocktail aficionados insist on having a quinquina such as Lillet or Dubonnet. Sherry gets pretty short shrift these days, though, being largely relegated to the kitchen in onion or mushroom soup. And that’s a shame because it’s delicious and makes a great cocktail ingredient.

Many traditional cocktail recipes that call for sherry also call for other fortified wines; consider the Bamboo or the Adonis. But fortified wines don’t have much of a shelf life once opened, so unless you’re a bar that can go through them quickly, it’s hard to have more than one or two on hand at a time, and sherry doesn’t often make the cut. The problem is compounded by the fact that many of the more sherry-heavy historical recipes are endangered species of drinks, such as Cobblers and Flips. (Though believe me when I tell you that an egg nog made with a good Pedro Ximenez sherry is a thing of beauty!)

Luckily, there are lots of more accessible drinks that use sherry’s distinctive dry nuttiness to great effect. Next time you’re making onion soup, be sure to buy a good sherry – you shouldn’t be using “cooking sherry” anyway – and tip some of it into your cocktail shaker. It makes a great substitute for dry vermouth in a Martini (a variation I’ve seen called a Tuxedo). Or you can start with an Up-To-Date. It may not be as up-to-date as it once was, but I think it deserves a revival.

How to make an Up-To-Date

1.5 oz. dry sherry
1.5 oz. bourbon
1 tsp. Grand Marnier
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass, fill with ice, stir for a slow count of 20, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

There’s a wide variety of cocktails out there with names based on autumn leaf imagery, like the “Falling Leaves” and “Fallen Leaves.” (Don’t confuse the two!) For that matter, I was served an impeccable version of the “Autumn Leaves,” at Toronto’s Acadia restaurant under the moniker “Indian Summer.” The “Autumn Leaves” in question comes from Jeffrey Morgenthaler, who describes its origins as a pretty straightforward case of cocktail templating. It’s pretty hard to go wrong with equal parts of two complementary base spirits plus an aromatized wine, a quarter ounce of intensely aromatic liqueur, and a dash or two of bitters (or, in this case, tincture).

I repeated the substitutions from the Acadia recipe, using bourbon in place of the original American rye and Calvados in place of the applejack, and added a twist of my own: lacking Strega (and not wanting to shell out for a bottle just to use a quarter ounce), I grabbed the Licor 43, whose flavour is predominantly vanilla. You could just as easily use Benedictine, yellow Chartreuse, or probably even Jägermeister, to good effect.

The cinnamon tincture for this recipe takes a couple of weeks to make; if you start now, you can enjoy this cocktail while it’s still in season. Or, you could just substitute a dash of Fee Brother’s Old Fashion Bitters, which taste predominantly of cinnamon already.

How to make cinnamon tincture

Cinnamon sticks
Vodka or grain neutral spirits (preferably 50% or greater alcohol by volume)

Fill a spice jar with cinnamon sticks, add vodka to cover, and let stand for two weeks. Drain and transfer to a dropper bottle.

How to make an Autumn Leaves cocktail

3/4 oz. American straight rye whiskey, such as Rittenhouse (or substitute Bourbon)
3/4 oz. applejack or apple brandy
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
1/4 oz. Strega (or substitute another herbal liqueur)
2 drops cinnamon tincture

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass, add ice, stir for a slow count of 20, then strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with an orange twist and a cinnamon stick.

Take Swedish punch. Despite having read about it many times, I never had the chance to try it until this summer, when I found myself in Seattle’s famous Zig Zag Café and ordered a happy hour-discounted Doctor Cocktail. It was similar to a Daiquiri, but with an edge of spice and smokiness from the Swedish punch. A conversation with the bartender ensued, in which he told me that their Swedish punch was house-made, and that he couldn’t tell me what was in it except “tea and spices.” Between that and my taste memory, I didn’t have a lot to go on in making my own batch.

Fortunately, I had a couple of other sources for ideas, including eGullet, Erik’s Savoy Stomp, and David Wondrich’s book Punch. Recipes vary, but all call for an ingredient that may be hard to find, depending on where you are: Batavia arrack, a rum-like spirit from Indonesia. (And unrelated to the Mediterranean “arak” or “raki,” an anise-flavoured liqueur.) I brought back a bottle on a previous trip to New York, but because it’s not available locally, I combined it in my Swedish Punch with conventional rum to extend my supply and in keeping with some of the recipes I’ve read. If you don’t have access to arrack, you could make a similar punch with Cognac (an extant variation called “Bimbo punch”) or make an all-rum version. Just be sure to use a funky rum, like the Pusser’s I used.

Below is the recipe I used for making my first batch. I find the spices don’t really come through as strongly as I would like, so you might want to add them earlier in the steeping process. (I wanted to err on the side of too weak, rather than too strong.) I also used a Benriner to slice my lemons, which may have liberated a bit too much juice; next time, I’ll just slice them by hand.

How to make Swedish Punch

1/2 cup Batavia arrack
1/2 cup Jamaican rum
2 lemons, thinly sliced

2 cloves
1/2 nutmeg
1 small black cardamom pod

300 ml water
150g raw sugar
2 tsp loose leaf tea (I used oolong)

Combine the arrack, rum and lemons, and let steep for 5.5 hours. Then add the spices and let steep for another half hour. Meanwhile, bring the water to a boil, remove from the heat, add the tea leaves and sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Let the tea steep for 4 minutes, the strain. Strain the arrack-rum-lemon mixture, but do not press on the lemons. Allow it to drain naturally. Combine the tea syrup with the alcohol mixture and bottle. It may develop a sediment after a couple of days; if so, strain again.

How to make a Doctor Cocktail

2 oz. rum (Jamaican or Barbados preferred)
1 oz. Swedish Punch
1 oz. lime juice

Add to a cocktail shaker, add ice, shake for 15 seconds, then strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.

After I made my very first batch of damson gin a couple of years ago, I started working through some of the cocktail recipes I’d found that call for sloe gin, since the two are similar in character. When I got to the Modern Cocktail No. 2, in the Savoy Cocktail Book, I stopped looking. This is the perfect drink to feature damson gin, and a fine, fine drink to enjoy at this time of year.

How to make a Modern No. 2

2 oz. damson gin (or sloe gin, if you have a good-quality one, like Plymouth)
1 oz. blended Scotch whisky
1 dash grenadine (about 1/2 tsp.)
1 dash absinthe
1 dash orange bitters

Combine ingredients in a mixing glass and stir with ice for a slow count of 20. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

I had to have a bottle.

Luckily, after Seattle, we moved on to Vancouver, which has Gourmet Warehouse, a store that carries a wide variety of interesting culinary ingredients. After a long trek down East Hastings St. (through the infamous Downtown Eastside), it was like entering a culinary wonderland: it’s the only store I’ve ever been to that has open shelves of modernist chemicals like sodium alginate, calcium gluconate lactate and gum tragacanth. They also stock a wide array of bitters from Bittermens, Fee Brothers and Victoria Spirits. I was lucky to escape with my wallet intact!

The label on the Hopped Grapefruit bitters suggests using them in short tequila drinks or long gin drinks, so once I got them home, I started thinking about how I wanted to try them out. I decided on a tequila variation of the Martinez, one of my favourite gin cocktails. There are a few tequila versions of this drink floating around, but I approached my version through direct substitutions. It was an absolute winner.

How to make a Tequila Martinez

2 oz. reposado tequila (I used 7 Leguas)
0.75 oz. Martini Bianco vermouth
1 tsp. Cointreau
15 drops Bittermens Hopped Grapefruit bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass, fill with ice, stir for 30-45 seconds, then strain into a chilled glass.

The Tiki tradition calls on a wide array of different syrups, from plain old simple syrup to orgeat to cinnamon- or ginger-infused syrup to coffee syrup. One of my favourites, though – a syrup that says “Tiki” to me more than any other – is passion fruit syrup. It adds a wonderful tropical fruit note to drinks that instantly makes them seem exotic.

Unfortunately, it can be hard to find a commercial passion fruit syrup that’s good for use in Tiki drinks. (One notable exception is B.G. Reynolds’ syrup.) Fortunately, if you have a store near you that carries Latin-American products, you’re halfway to making your own! Look in the freezers for passion fruit puree; it may be labelled with its Spanish name, “maracuya.”

Perhaps the most classic Tiki drink that incorporates passion fruit syrup, and almost certainly the simplest, is the Hurricane. There are myriad different Hurricane recipes floating around, but Beachbum Berry attributes the original to Pat O’Brien’s restaurant in New Orleans. Nowadays even they use a powdered mix, but the original original was nothing but rum, lemon juice and passion fruit syrup.

How to make passion fruit syrup

Sugar
Water
Frozen passion fruit puree

Make some simple syrup by combining equal volumes of sugar and water and stirring over medium-low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Allow to cool completely. Meanwhile, break off some of the frozen passion fruit puree and allow to thaw. Once thawed, measure it out, and combine with an equal volume of simple syrup. Store in the refrigerator. It may separate out as it sits; if so, simply shake to recombine before using.

How to make a Hurricane

2 oz. dark rum, preferably Jamaican (I used Coruba, but Gosling’s works fine, too)
1 oz. passion fruit syrup
1 oz. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Shake for 15 seconds, then strain into a glass filled with crushed ice. It should be a hurricane glass, if you have one. (I don’t.) Also, you may then have to double all the ingredients to fill the glass, as the original recipe actually calls for… and I just can’t drink that much in one drink!

Okay, maybe that’s not literally true, but if you read early cocktail books, like Jerry Thomas’ Bartender’s Guide, you’ll see plenty of references to raspberry syrup… and none to grenadine. It’s an indispensable ingredient in the East India Cocktail and Clover Club, and makes a pretty fine substitute for grenadine in many other recipes, too.

Based on the state of my local farmers’ market last weekend, now is the perfect time to make raspberry syrup. The raspberries this year have been small (and expensive!), but intensely flavourful. Early methods for raspberry syrup involve letting the raspberries ferment for three days before straining, sweetening and cooking, but with modern refrigeration, there’s a much simpler approach.

How to make raspberry syrup

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 pint raspberries, the more flavourful, the better

Combine sugar and water in a small pot and heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool completely.

Place the berries in a non-reactive bowl and add enough of the cooled syrup to cover. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and allow to stand overnight.

The next day, strain the berries out, and pour the syrup into a clean bottle. Store in the fridge.

How to make a Knickerbocker

2 oz. light-bodied amber rum (ideally Cruzan Aged Dark rum, or substitute Havana Club 7)
3/4 oz. lime juice
1/2 oz. raspberry syrup
1/2 oz. Grand Marnier

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake for 15 seconds, then strain into a rocks glass filled with more ice. Garnish with additional raspberries, or an orange wheel and a cherry, or whatever fruits you have on hand.

People in some quarters spend a lot of time debating what, exactly, constitutes a craft cocktail. There’s lots of debate, but I’m sure most would agree that any drink that’s blue probably doesn’t qualify.

But, as Jeff “Beachbum” Berry points out in his book, Beachbum Berry Remixed, there’s just something about blue drinks that’s appealing sometimes, mostly on hot summer days when you want your drink to match the pool. And in theory, there’s no reason they can’t be good – blue curaçao has the same flavour as any other colour – it’s just that they usually aren’t good. He then puts his money where his mouth is by offering a handful of recipes that use it to good effect.

The Aquadisiac is probably the simplest of the bunch, and since I had some homemade orgeat kicking around, it seemed like a good place to start. It’s not the most complex drink I’ve ever tasted, but it’s still well balanced and satisfying in its simplicity.

Of course, you may be wondering why I even have a bottle of blue curaçao in the first place. Let’s just say that, in my student days, I wasn’t as dedicated to craft cocktails as I am today.

How to make an Aquadisiac

Created by Beachbum Berry
1/2 oz. blue curaçao
1/2 oz. orgeat
1 oz. lemon juice
2 oz. medium-bodied rum (I used English Harbour, but Mount Gay should do nicely)

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake for 15 seconds. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass (or, if you want to be cheeky, a hand-blown, hand-cut crystal snifter, as shown).